


Impasse at Dagobah

by Cerberusia



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M, Sex Pollen, Sharing Body Heat, Sharing a Bed, Stranded
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-25 02:40:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10755045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerberusia/pseuds/Cerberusia
Summary: They go down in the Sluis sector of the Outer Rim.





	Impasse at Dagobah

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wednesday](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wednesday/gifts).



> I loved SO MANY of your prompts, trying to pick one to write was like trying to pick a favourite child. But I've been itching to write Finn/Kylo for a while, and then I saw the words 'sex pollen' and I was, as they say, done for. I hope this hits the spot!

They go down in the Sluis sector of the Outer Rim. Finn's X-Wing holds Kylo Ren's shuttle with tough alloy cables, winding the two together in a death-grip. The _Falcon_ should be coming up behind him, ready to back him up so he can disengage; but that was before Ren inititated a hyperspace jump his small craft shouldn't have been capable of. Where do you even _fit_ a hyperdrive into that thing?

So the Falcon is several systems away, unable to cover Finn and blast Ren to smithereens. Finn rattles the controls, trying to disengage - but Ren's craft's furious struggles have jammed the cable mechanisms, and he can't jettison the cables and free himself. They're completely tangled.

His astromech droid beeps at him urgently. It's trying to get a angle where his own weapons can target the cables in the hope of blasting through them as they roll and tumble through the unknown planet's atmostphere.

"I know, I know!" It's useless: Finn can't manoeuvre at all like this, and trying to shift his weapons systems only brings up a warning that he's about to smash his fore guns to bits on Ren's shiny black hull. His aft guns are free, but can't lock on. His only consolation is that Ren seems to be having the same trouble.

There's nothing for it: they're going to crash. His droid is going crazy, beeping and bringing up warnings that he's coming in too steep and too fast.

"I _know!_ " Engaging reverse thrusters slows them only slightly - not enough.

He manages to roll them so that his fighter is on top as the ground heads towards them at dizzying speed, but everything is swinging and veering wildly, and in the end he's not sure which of them hits the ground first. Impact slams him into his viewscreens, into his control panels - and then everything goes dark.

Some time later, he wakes up.

Surprisingly, it's not the worst he's ever felt after a crash landing. He's upside down and sore basically all over, but none of his limbs are broken, and his helmet protected his head. His X-Wing is shot, of course: it's so damaged that it's not even beeping or flashing at him, just bathing him in the dull red warning light of backup power.

There's greenish light filtering through his cracked viewscreens, and blurry visions of what look like huge trees; air too, which suggests that the atmostphere is breathable. He can't feel anything to suggest low or high gravity. As planets to crash-land on go, he could do a lot worse.

If his fighter hasn't exploded yet it probably isn't going to - these things have pretty robust fuel lines - but he still needs to get out of it. This he does very carefully and cautiously, given that he has to do all his manoeuvering upside down. They were trained for zero G, but unfortunately that's not the same.

So he half-stumbles, half-rolls out of the cockpit of his X-Wing, once he's managed to lever it open. The planet turns out to be very green and watery - in the swampy way, not the beachy way. It's darker than Finn would like because the trees block out a good portion of the sunlight, but the air is breathable and he's found his ration packs, so unless it turns out to be the rancor homeworld he feels safe enough to concentrate on his other immediate problems.

The biggest of which is the black shuttle - or its remains, at least - right next to his own, cables torn from their moorings in the force of the crash still encircling it. It looks to be in much the same shape as Finn's X-Wing. Finn wonders whether the pilot is in the same shape as him.

Kylo Ren is in there. It seems absurd to think that, somehow: that Kylo Ren, who fought like something supernatural, who came after them, indomitable in the snow, should be just a few metres away in that shuttle. They've fought in ships before, but Finn hasn't seen Kylo Ren's face since Starkiller.

The landing ramp is closed. More than that, there's a load of branches around it making it obvious that it hasn't been opened. Kylo Ren is definitely still in there.

It's tempting to just...ignore it. That was a hard landing and Kylo Ren's shuttle bore the brunt of it: it's not inconceivable or even improbable that he's dead. If he's injured and too weak to get out, that's not Finn's problem. As Poe once memorably put it, Finn shouldn't go looking to borrow trouble.

He stares at the shuttle for a long time. He imagines what might be inside it. He imagines what might not be.

He takes the initiative: better for him to find Kylo Ren than for Kylo Ren to find him. He clears away the branches, flinging them to the side - though not too violently, in case there really is something nasty out there. The shuttle's hatch opens at the press of the button, landing ramp descending smoothly. Inside, there is darkness.

The shuttle is small enough that as soon as he opens the main hatch, he sees the hatch to the cockpit - still locked. Emergency lights are on, but there's no sound beyond the tiny hum of backup life support. Finn's senses rocket into hyperawareness.

It's Kylo Ren, a voice in the back of his head says, if he's out here, you won't know until it's too late.

Finn doesn't really want to open the hatch. He wants to get out of this creepy black shuttle and cannabalise it for parts so he can rebuild his own fighter well enough to get off this swampy hole of a planet. He isn't a great mechanic, but he's good enough to do basic repairs.

Instead, he presses the hatch open button. Like the landing ramp, it slides open easily. The sleek movement and the design of the door remind him of the half-hour aboard the transport ship to Jakku. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there's something very First Order in style about the shuttle - he'd know the aesthetic anywhere.

As the hatch slides open, he at once sees a great hunched black figure, and for a moment he thinks Kylo Ren might be dead.

The figure stirs, moves its arm - there, a great gash, deep in his side, from where the cockpit has been torn and forced inward and pierced him right through his armour. He's managed to get himself free of the sharp metal, but now his wound is bleeding freely onto the floor grating.

Kylo Ren looks up at the sound of the door opening. He's not wearing his mask, and Finn can't see it anywhere. His great nose makes him look like a bird of prey, shot on the wing but still dangerous. He snarls and tries to rise, but goes white and sinks down again in his seat.

He raises his hand.

If Finn were Rey, he'd be wondering to himself how much concentration physical Force manipulation took for someone at risk of spilling their lifeblood over a ship's deck. Since he isn't, he just thinks, This is it then.

He doesn't close his eyes. He isn't a coward any more. He really _is_ part of the Resistance. He looks into Kylo Ren's eyes instead - dark, frightening eyes. He's never seen them before, simply because he'd never dared look Kylo Ren in the eye. He has brown eyes, which surprises Finn: for some reason, he'd assumed they were grey. His face is ashen and sweating, upper lip curling.

A long moment passes. Finn notes a complete lack of any pressure on his windpipe.

Kylo Ren waves his hand, an imperious motion towards the main shuttle hatch and landing ramp.

Still, nothing.

Finn stares at him in astonishment. He should leave, he knows - no doubt Kylo Ren has other tricks - but this is the first time he's seen the all-terrifying Force Choke just not happen. Is it because Kylo Ren is injured? No, Finn has seen him do as much after having his side shredded by Chewbacca's bowcaster - but now he's left panting, clutching the back of his chair in a white-knuckled grip.

He can't use the Force, Finn realises. Kylo Ren, leaning heavily on his console, looks sick. He's realised the same thing.

Kylo Ren is utterly at his mercy.

I could kill him, Finn thinks. I could shoot him right now, right here, and that would be the end of it. No more Kylo Ren. No more nightmares.

The man across from him has gone white and hunched with pain. He's defenseless. His great dark eyes burn through Finn with pure, impotent malice.

Finn didn't escape from the First Order to kill the helpless under a different banner.

"Where's your first aid kit?"

Kylo Ren bares his teeth.

"Can't do it?" He sounds like he's trying to seem contemptuous, but he just looks like it's taking him a lot of effort to speak. "Here you have the opportunity, the motive - and you can't bring yourself t-to kill me?"

"Not interested." Finn really doesn't want to get into an argument about this. Ideally he'd prefer to do the whole thing without having to speak with Kylo Ren at all.

Kylo Ren's lip curls, like that of an animal.

"Coward."

Finn sucks in a breath through his teeth. A precise hit. _I'm not, I'm not._ Does he know? Did he read it in Finn's mind when they fought on snowy Starkiller?

No: if he knew, he'd say how he knew. He'd gloat over having got into Finn's head. His face is angry, not smug. The word still stings, but less. He gets his temper under control.

"If you like," he says after a moment, with studied indifference. Kylo Ren's eyes narrow. Finn has always been a bad liar.

Finn turns away and starts investigating the panels of the cockpit. If Kylo Ren won't tell him where the first aid kit is, he'll have to find it himself. In most First Order vessels, there's one right under the pilot's seat; but he's hoping there's one somewhere he won't have to lean over Kylo Ren to get it.

There's not much room on the bridge - this is only a one-man craft, after all - and he's hyperaware of black robes brushing his legs, of Kylo Ren's ragged breathing. He knows better than to think Kylo Ren has given up: he's just rallying himself for another strike at Finn's weak spots.

"You should sit down," says Finn after a protracted silence broken only by him rattling panels and searching compartments. Behind him, Kylo Ren hisses like steam escaping from an MRE. Finn whirls around - that was much closer than he was expecting.

Kylo Ren has levered himself up and is now supporting himself by clutching a standing passenger strap that hangs from the overhead. His face has gone white, with only two bright red spots of colour burning in his cheeks. Close up, he's huge, towering over Finn. He may not be able to choke Finn just by thinking about it, but Finn is struck by the uncomfortable realisation that he could do it just with his own physical strength.

Then he sees the glassy eyes, and the white-knuckled grip on the strap.

"Sit _down_ ," he says - just as Kylo Ren starts to fall.

He doesn't think about catching his arm to prevent him from crumpling to the deck: he just does it. Even through all the layers of fabric, Kylo Ren is burning hot. He sags in Finn's grip, and Finn firmly guides him back into the pilot's chair.

Kylo Ren slumps in it, mouth open, panting like he's going to be sick. It's probably the pain, or maybe the shock.

Finn feels like the smooth black walls are closing in, entombing them both with the smell of fried electronics. He can taste blood. He makes a decision.

"Come on, we're getting you out of here." And, with minimal cooperation, he slings Kylo Ren's arm over his shoulder and hauls him to his feet. The difference in their heights make it a perfect fit.

It's hard work getting him out of the shuttle: not because he's resisting, but because he's heavy and stumbling. It's like dealing with a drunk Wookie. But Finn is strong, even for a Stormtrooper, and he hauls him out. The sunlight is briefly blinding after the dim glow of emergency lighting, and he feels Kylo Ren winces and try to shy away. Then his vision clears and the murky swamp comes back into focus.

He drops Kylo Ren on the ground - not too hard, but not too gently either - and takes the med kid from under his arm. Kylo Ren stays sprawled, eyes closed, mouth open. His spread legs and torn clothing give him an air of inappropriately sexual debauchery - until Finn searches out the gash in his side, oozing blood.

Finn isn't trained as a medic, but he's had field first aid training twice over now and he can clean a wound and apply a bacta patch as well as anyone. He squats cautiously by Kylo Ren's side, and separates the cloth from where's stuck to flesh with dried blood. Kylo Ren trembles a little under his hands, but Finn sees him biting the inside of his mouth so he doesn't make a sound.

It's a nasty wound: not the worst Finn has seen, and as far as he can tell it's not affecting any internal organs, but the laceration from the caved-in bulkhead is deep and jagged. He must have torn his side up further in twisting himself free. The skin around it is hot when he cleans it with antibac. The solidity of Kylo Ren's torso under his hands, the rise and fall of his stomach, is deeply strange: there's a person inside all that black wool and leather. He has a body, that Finn can touch and is touching.

"I assume your ship has supplies, so I'm going to go raid them now," he tells him once he's applied the bacta patch. Giving first aid to Kylo Ren without so much as a snarl for his trouble has made him bold. He feels a bit like he's survived patching up a rancor.

Kylo Ren's face twists, and he shrugs - then winces as the motion pulls at his wound.

"I can't stop you," he says in a low, rusty voice. From him, that's civil. Finn will take it as his blessing.

He's checking out Kylo Ren's ship because his own has minimal supplies: limited water, water purifier, unappealing rations and tarp. He steps gingerly through the open hatch: there's something about the all-black ship that gives him the creeps. There's a smell to it, metallic and sweet, that _could_ just be the material it's made of burning up in the crash; but some part of Finn's hindbrain knows it isn't. He moves fast.

As he remembers, emergency supplies in First Order vessels are in a pack underneath the pilot's chair with the first aid kit. But while rummaging through the compartments of the cockpit he finds something better: a proper camping kit, all tied in a roll, creased with use. He can't quite envision Kylo Ren doing something so mundane as camping, but it's obviously his.

He gets both packs outside, and suddenly his legs nearly give out. The adrenaline is wearing off, and fatigue setting in. He settles his burdens on the ground - not too quickly, lest Kylo Ren realise and try to take advantage - and settles down himself. He drinks some water and eats a ration bar, both liberated from Kylo Ren's emergency pack, and takes a look around.

Item one: Kylo Ren, still slumped on the ground. His eyes are open and his breathing is steady, but he's obviously worn out. Finn can hardly believe that this is the same man who took a bowcaster bolt to the side - the opposite side, he realises, to the one now injured - and still nearly killed Finn and Rey. Back then his eyes were wild, his red lips parted to show his teeth, as if the pain had only driven him wilder. Now the pain and shock have sapped his strength entirely. Pain's funny that way.

Kylo Ren is watching him. Finn lets his eyes pass over his face only briefly: the bruised cheek, the bloodless mouth, the eyes like black holes. It makes him uncomfortable. He looks at the swamp instead.

Above their heads, a bird chirps. Something is making a sussurating noise - an insect, maybe, or a reptile. The water of the swamp is still. It's still incredible to Finn that places like this exist.

He's tired, but once his legs feel strong enough to support him again, he gets up and sets to fixing a camp. They'll need shelter: this planet has been quiet enough so far, but Finn doesn't think it's his imagination that the patches of sunlight through the trees are getting dimmer, and lots of predators only come out at night.

Kylo Ren isn't much help: his eyes are half-open and tracking Finn's movements, but he doesn't volunteer information on how to set up the tent or firemaking equipment and Finn is too irritated to risk starting a conversation.

 _Why am I doing this?_ he asks himself as he jams a tent pole into the ground in a hollow formed by the roots of one of the planet's enormous trees. _Why did I save an enemy who wants me dead, and will no doubt try to gut me like a fish as soon as he can?_

Maybe he is a coward after all.

 _It's not cowardice not to want to kill somebody,_ Luke's voice says in his head. Finn pauses in setting up the water purifier, takes a deep breath, counts, and breathes out, just like he was taught. Luke taught him a lot of things. For a moment he wishes very, very badly that Luke were here. He'd happily take Rey, Poe, Jessika, the General, even C3PO - but right now he _really_ wants to see Luke. He wants advice and insight that only Luke can give.

But Luke is many, many lightyears away, safe in his hermit cave next to their new base. _If Luke won't come to us,_ the General had said, _then we'll just have to go to him._

When he comes to set out his bedroll, he gets caught in a dilemna.

By now, Kylo Ren has managed to manoeuvre himself so he's leaning against a tree root rather than lying on the ground. He's still watching Finn.

Finn really, really doesn't want to light a fire. Some animals are scared off by fire, but plenty of them are attracted by it, and he wants to pass as unnoticed as possible. They can manage just fine without cooking - that's what ration bars were designed for - but they need to keep warm, and with the sun gone the temperature is dropping rapidly. And the insulating tarp for Finn's bedroll is ripped. How, he doesn't know, because he's never used it; but perhaps the last person to fly this X-Wing before him used it and somehow it ripped and then they packed it back up and completely forgot about it, because he's looking at it right now and it's ripped.

He could, of course, just take Kylo Ren's insulated, non-ripped bedroll. That would be a perfectly reasonable thing to do. He knows as soon as he thinks it that he's not going to do it.

He hates, _hates_ that he can't just _leave things alone._

 _Finn, that's your conscience,_ says Luke's voice. _It's good that you have such a strong compunction to help people._

 _Is it, though?_ thinks Finn blackly as he lays out the bedroll on top of his ripped tarp, which should at least give them some protection from the damp ground.

"Come on," he says to Kylo Ren brusquely, resenting both Kylo Ren and himself. Kylo Ren looks at the bedroll, then at him. The look says volumes. For a moment he looks extraordinarily like Han.

The memory makes Finn even more reluctant to share. But he says,

"We need to keep warm. Come _on_."

He thinks of what Poe would say; something mock-flirty, maybe _I won't make it weird if you won't._ It wouldn't sound right in his mouth, so he just waits.

Slowly, Kylo Ren stands up. He shuffles over to the bedroll and sits down heavily. Finn watches him unlace and pull off his boots, shrug off his cowl, then topple to one side and apparently fall dead asleep.

Finn watches him for a moment. His face looks gaunt and shadowed. It's not just the crash and his injury, Finn realises, feeling stupid for having taken so long: there's something else. Some great upheaval has happened in Kylo Ren's life.

He takes off his own boots and settles down to sleep once he's ensured that Kylo Ren has no access to weapons he can see. He didn't have his lightsaber on him when Finn pulled him out of the wreck, and Finn took the opportunity while administering first aid to thoroughly pat him down: nothing. He must rely on the Force for everything, Finn realises.

He wriggles into the bedroll beside him. He's largely stopped being afraid, or just stopped caring. Kylo Ren is huge and solid and incredibly warm. It's like sleeping next to a human-sized hot water bottle that smells suspiciously like blood.

He wants to set a distress signal, but that would risk bringing the First Order as well: he'll have to wait for Rey to find him.

 _Rey._ Wrapped up in his bedroll next to a murderer, he envisions her piloting the Falcon, face set as she searches for him. _Rey, I'm here,_ he tells the ether, and hopes his rudimentary Force connection and sheer determination and longing can help guide her.

The next morning could be worse. For one thing, Finn's still alive. He aches, of course, that deep muscular ache that comes after a physically exhausting day, but no internal bleeding has appeared over night, so he's still clinging firmly to the adage that any landing you walk away from is a good one.

In addition, Kylo Ren still can't use the Force. Finn guessed that shortly after waking up, seeing as he was alive to do so. As soon as Kylo Ren gets back in tune or whatever, he'll be off this planet and Finn won't see him leave. So mostly this is good news, if only for Finn; but the mysterious disappearance of Kylo Ren's powers, while convenient for him, makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

Because there's something about this planet, a kind of energy. Luke told him that he was Force-sensitive, but not to the level of a Jedi: just like one of the Force-sensitive species, able to feel energy currents and have better intuition than most humans. And this place is _full_ of those currents. Finn is aware of _everything_. He knows there are lizards in the bushes, birds in the trees, something huge and reptilian and hungry in the water. He can _feel_ them. There's something special about this uninhabited backwater in the Sluis sector.

He wants to ask someone about it, but his only source of information isn't cooperating. Kylo Ren has been absolutely sullen ever since he woke up and crawled out of their shared bedroll. Finn has never seen his face in anything but a scowl - whether angry, pained or victorious - and for all he knows he may have slept with that expression one too many times and got his face stuck like that; but even by that measure, he looks exceptionally furious and resentful. He hasn't spoken a word all morning. Finn started assessing and fixing the damage to his fighter two hours ago, and shortly after he started on the same.

But when Finn sets down the emergency mini-welder in frustration and announces that he intends to explore the area around the camp a little - to check for any evidence of that massive lizard-fish, for one - he says,

"I'll come too."

He looks like he ought to go straight back to bed and sleep a full cycle. But Finn isn't his mother or superior officer or doctor, or even his friend, so he shrugs and says,

"Do as you like."

The rest of the planet is much like the bit they've already seen: swamp, jungle, jungle swamp. It all looks basically the same, and Finn is concentrating so hard on creating a mental map and not losing their way back to camp that he has little attention to spare for Kylo Ren's continued silence behind him. He easily keeps pace with Finn, of course, but there's something effortful about it. Abdomen wounds will slow you down almost as badly as a leg wound.

Finn doesn't offer to stop. If Kylo Ren needs to go back to camp and rest, he can do that at any time. He can hear the sodden ground squelching under his boots, and the sound is incongruous: Kylo Ren should float over the ground, not tread on it.

The silence bothers him. It shouldn't, because troopers were all expected to be able to maintain total silence on stealth missions; but he always hated that part, hated waiting around with only the identical silent helmets of his squadron for company. He's not chatty like Poe is, but he enjoys the simple pleasure of conversation with other beings.

Next to him, Kylo Ren emanates sulkiness. It's more wearing even than the silence.

He manages an hour of being trailed by a tall black cloud before he gives in and asks a question that's been bugging him. If Kylo Ren takes it the wrong way, Finn can run faster than he can right now.

"Hey," he says. Kylo Ren looks over, which is a little surprising: he'd half-expected to be ignored completely. "Why did you stop wearing the mask?"

Now Kylo Ren looks surprised. He really is amazingly easy to read. That mask hid a lot.

Then he compresses his mouth into a thin line and looks away. Finn thinks he's not going to answer until he finally says,

"I no longer deserve to wear it."

"Deserve? You mean all that stuff on Starkiller?" He thinks Kylo Ren's face goes a shade paler. "But you killed y- Han, right? Isn't that what you were meant to do?"

The expression Kylo Ren directs at him is ugly. His chest swells, he seems to stand taller - Finn is preparing to dodge a swing when Kylo Ren suddenly looks away again and says in a hard voice,

"I didn't kill the scavenger. I haven't found Skywalker."

"Uh-huh." A pause; the ground squelching underfoot. "And, uh, what are you going to do with him when you find him?"

"I'll kill him," says Kylo Ren confidently, but with tightness in his jaw.

"With _what?_ "

"My saber," says Kylo Ren after a moment of deliberation.

"And no Force powers?"

"They'll return," Kylo Ren insists shortly. "It's just this - planet."

It could be true: as far as Finn knows the problem only manifested when they crashed. But Kylo Ren looks like he's been hollowed out inside, and Finn wonders whether that's all it is.

It's not his business. They walk on.

"There's something about this planet," says Kylo Ren abruptly after just over another mile, when Finn is about to head back to camp. He's looking around with his lips pressed tight together, like he's looking for something.

"I can feel it too," says Finn when he doesn't say anything more. "It's the Force, right?" It's as if the air is at once both oppressively heavy and the freshest he's ever breathed. Everything has a pulse, and he can feel it.

"Yes." Kylo Ren tilts his head to look up at the sky. He has such a curious face, oddly put together yet harmonious; and all his expressions appear on it as soon as he feels them. Maybe that's why he wears - wore? - the helmet. Finn never liked his much, but he understood that it kept his secrets like his comrades' kept theirs.

They don't say anything more to each other as they head back to camp, eat their ration bars, and set to work on their respective fighters. But by Kylo Ren's standards, that was positively chatty. Finn wonders whether it's because he doesn't normally have anyone else to talk to.

They curl up together in the same bedroll again, still without talking about it. It's still cold out there, but Kylo Ren is still fever-hot.

The next day dawns much the same, but Finn doesn't feel at ease. Neither does Kylo Ren, by the look of his rapid-glancing eyes. They work on their transport in the morning, silently picking up engine parts and re-welding hulls. It's hot work and the jungle is humid, and they each strip to their bare chests. Beneath his clothes, Kylo Ren's skin has the pale ashy tinge of humans who spend most of their lives in space. Spacer's tan, they call it.

This time it's Kylo Ren who suggests exploring. There's no purpose - they've mapped the area around the camp, and if there have been inhabitants here all along they're clearly far better at covering their tracks than Finn is at sniffing them out.

But they have to go into the jungle. Finn feels it and Kylo Ren feels it too: _need_. They need to go into the jungle.

Kylo Ren has a long stride, and Finn has to lengthen his to keep up with him, like he used to do in formation - though in formation the taller troopers had to restrain themselves for their shorter comrades' sake. Kylo Ren has no such compunction.

They trudge further, up a slight hill to drier ground and thick jungle. Kylo Ren is leading the way, eyes fixed ahead, but Finn feels it too: something drawing them closer, further into the jungle, towards the heart of the planet.

Kylo Ren's hair is hanging in his eyes and plastered to his cheeks with humidity and sweat. Finn feels uncomfortable just looking at him, but he doesn't seem to notice. He presses on as if possessed. Whatever is urging on Finn must be many times more powerful for him.

The jungle suddenly thins, giving way to scrubland. The ground turns rocky and treacherous underfoot. It hurts Finn's feet even through his flight boots. He doesn't stop. He keeps following Kylo Ren.

Straight ahead is a tree. Finn can almost hear Poe's voice going _This planet is absolutely covered in trees, Finn, well done_ , but it's not like the others. Its roots are firmly sunk into the ground for one, but its most noticeable attribute is that it's _small_. Well, ordinary-sized, but miniscule next to its stratospheric neighbours. It's the size of tree you'd find in public spaces in cities, though exceptionally lush. Its foliage is silver-green, and its many pendulous flowers are rich burnt orange. They hang from their branches as if their blossoms are too heavy to lift. A faint wind ruffles the petals to reveal a glimpse of the round deep purple fruit within.

This is what they came for. Finn doesn't know what it is or why they should seek it, but he knows that this is it. Kylo Ren goes right up to it, hand outstretched to touch the thick black-brown trunk. He's not wearing his gloves, and the moment his bare fingers come into contact with the wood the whole tree seems to undergo a little spasm, spreading its branches and sprouting more silver-green leaves.

A rich purple fruit drops to the ground and splits. The flesh inside is deep red-pink, and Finn can smell the sweet juice from where he stands. He opens his mouth and the perfume of the fruit coats it, thick and spicy-sweet.

Kylo Ren turns towards him. His eyes are black and his mouth is red. The air between them seems to pulse.

Finn says, through sticky lips and a dry tongue,

"We need to get back to camp."

They run.

We've been poisoned, Finn thinks. All he can focus on is the earth under his feet and his aching erection. We need to use our medkits to find an antidote.

By the time they get to the camp, he thinks: I wonder what Kylo Ren's sweat tastes like.

Kylo Ren tackles him into the damp earth, but Finn doesn't mind. He rolls over, opening himself up completely. He helps Kylo Ren strip off his shirt - he's sweating, they both are, and his torso seems to glow - and pulls his own off too, then lets Kylo Ren press him back onto the ground and their chests together. It feels amazing, better than it has any right to.

"I can't stop," Kylo Ren pants in his ear. Finn can feel his erection against his thigh as he rocks his hips.

"M-me neither," gasps Finn, wrapping a leg around Kylo Ren's to draw him closer. This is nothing like the furtive handjobs exchanged at the Academy and in the barracks. This is hot and close and _real_. Kylo Ren's weight crushes him into the ground and he wants more: he wants to be totally subsumed. Kylo Ren is making little noises in his ear as he grinds his cock against Finn's leg, little huffs and pants. Finn's dick is brushing against his stomach, but he can't get proper friction in these pants and it's driving him crazy.

Finn goes for Kylo Ren's leggings at the same time as Kylo Ren gets impatient and goes for his pants. They tear their remaining clothing off - maybe literally, they're so excited - then fall on each other again, skin to skin. The feeling of Kylo Ren's bare skin against his when he hikes a leg up around his waist feels incredible, as incredible as his dick being crushed against Kylo Ren's abs. He hadn't realised that other people's skin would be so _soft_.

Kylo Ren catches his thigh and thrusts his dick against Finn's and it feels so good that Finn gasps out loud. Kylo Ren's eyes are closed, his mouth wet and open, his face pink as he thrusts again and again, rubbing their erections together until Finn grabs him by the shoulders, the hair, anything to hold onto, and tries to lift his hips up from the dirt to thrust back against him.

Finn comes with his fingers digging bruises into Kylo Ren's shoulders, groaning helplessly, and to the feeling of Kylo Ren's hot ragged breath on his neck. His hips jack-knife up as his cock spurts semen between them, and then Kylo Ren's moaning low in his ear and shuddering, convulsing.

Kylo Ren doesn't get off him, and Finn doesn't push him away. He welcomes the solid, crushing weight. His arms are still around his shoulders, and he can feel the rapid rise and fall of his chest returning to normal.

What are you doing? he asks himself. You couldn't kill him, so now you're fucking him?

Then Kylo Ren rolls them over and he stops asking why.

Kylo Ren opens to his fingers then to his cock so easily, Finn would think he's done this before except for the absolute certainity that he hasn't. He feels indescribable inside, hot and slick and trembling, trembling all over until he grasps at Finn's head and pulls him down for a kiss. Finn's lips part; Kylo Ren's tongue slides between them. It should be disgusting - it always looks disgusting - but the feeling of a tongue pressing slickly against his own makes him harder, hotter. Beneath him Kylo Ren opens his legs wide and whimpers into his mouth, desperate to be fucked, desperate for Finn. _Fill me up, fill me up_ \- those aren't Finn's thoughts but they're in his head just the same, a frantic litany. He comes clawing at Finn's bowed back as he thrusts and thrusts into Kylo Ren's powerful, helpless body.

They do it twice more, staggering over to their bedroll in between, insatiable for each other. It's the tree, Finn tells himself, the pollen or the sap or something; under other circumstances it would be you and Poe or you and Rey or all three of you fucking like you're trying to crawl inside each other.

But somehow he knows that the tree wouldn't have bloomed for anyone other than Kylo Ren. Nobody else would need it.

They kiss in their bedroll, wrapped up in each other's arms, until Finn falls asleep mid-caress.

He wakes in the middle of the humid double-mooned night to the little tingle on the back of his neck that means the Force is being manipulated somewhere nearby. He keeps his breathing deep and even and his eyes barely half-open until his vision has adjusted.

Kylo Ren is opening the hatch of his ship. It's nearly silent, only a faint pneumatic hiss to give it away. He isn't opening it with his hands, which are still cradling Finn's ass and shoulder respectively, but with the Force.

A small cylindrical object floats silently out of the hatch. Finn recognises it immediately as Kylo Ren's lightsaber hilt. The broken crystal catches the moonlight.

It hovers there for a long minute, as if held up by an invisible hand. It's an ugly thing, handmade and crude. If Kylo Ren decides to take off his head with it it'll do a fine job.

At long last, the lightsaber floats back inside the ship. The hatch closes. And Kylo Ren squeezes Finn a little tighter to him.

Finn closes his eyes against the memory of his enemy vulnerable and pleading beneath him, and prays for rescue.


End file.
